The field of the invention is sporting goods and the invention relates more particularly to showboards.
In the past, commercial snowboards have comprised a single surface equipped with forward and rear bindings for attaching the user's boots to the snowboard. Prior one-piece snowboards have been limited in their ability to make sharp turns and maneuver over uneven surfaces and around moguls. In addition, they are awkward to store and transport.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,865,446 to Kobylenski et al, Jun. 6, 1996 attempted to address the limitations of the one-piece snowboard by creating an articulated two-piece snowboard that looks very much like a traditional snowboard cut in half and connected with flexible straps. Although the flexible connection appears to give the snowboard some additional maneuverability over a one-piece board by making one board into two shorter boards, the flexible connection results in some significant maneuverability issues.
The bottom of the board is flat like a traditional, one-piece snowboard, so that each section still has problems moving over and around bumps and uneven surfaces. In addition, and most importantly, the snowboard still must be maneuvered using the edge of the board for turning and direction in a manner similar to the one-piece snowboard. This makes the snowboard less controllable using the stated design than one-piece snowboards for the following reason: by creating a flexible connection, the rider must now contend with two edges, one on each section. To maximize control, the full edge of each section needs to be in contact with the surface of the snow. In order for this to happen, the edges must remain in a straight line. This will require substantial effort on the part of the rider and the sections will normally not remain in a straight line.
The rider has two options when entering a turn, neither optimal. In the first, the forward foot will be angled into the turn while the trailing foot will tend to be pointed in the original direction. The weight will be on the front foot to make the turn, engaging the full edge of the front section, but with reduced effectiveness, since the edge of the back section is used only minimally--the turn is being performed primarily by the edge of the front section. If the rider inadvertently shifts his weight to the back section, that section will want to maintain the original direction and the board could easily become uncontrollable. In the second method of making the turn the rider will have more equal weight on both sections, and the angle between the longitudinal axis of both sections will be less than 180 degrees on the side that is being turned toward. The problem with this approach is that only a fraction of the full edge of both sections will be engaged. This will result in decreased turning performance when compared to a one-piece snowboard.
The primary advantage becomes the primary disadvantage, since the flex in the middle prevents full engagement of both sections' edges. In summary, the use of a two-piece snowboard with a flexible connector while retaining the same turning method that is used in the one-piece snowboard, is a serious flaw in the Kobylenski design.
In addition, the Kobylenski design secures both feet to the snowboard like the traditional one-piece snowboards. This decreases rider mobility and increases risk of injury.
The present invention introduces an entirely new design for snowboards, comprising two sections with a uniquely shaped convex bottom and joined with a connector. Quite different than the traditional flat-surfaced bottom, the bottom surface of the snowboard of the present invention is not only convex front-to-back like the traditional snowboard, but also side-to-side, much like the shape of a rounded hull of a boat or the underside of a spoon. This allows it to move around and through rough, bumpy surfaces, including moguls. The convex bottom has one or more ridges which are used to maneuver and turn the board. The edge of the board is no longer the primary means of turning the board. The ridges are strategically placed on the bottom surface to accommodate various types of terrain and ride. Angled blades can be incorporated in the bottom surface for more aggressive turning capability. In the preferred embodiment, a springable connector forces the rear section to follow the front section in a turn, placing the ridges on the bottom surface of both sections in an optimal turning configuration.
Since the edge of the board is not used for turning and maneuvering, the rider is freed from the requirement of rigidly securing his feet to the invention with a binding, since it is no longer necessary to use secured feet to turn the board on its edge. Instead, the rider can ride the invention with maximum freedom of foot movement and little or no securing of the feet to the surface of each section.
The sections can be disconnected for easy transport and storage. A user can customize and modify the performance of the invention by: (a) interchanging sections with sections of differing physical and performance characteristics (b) changing or moving ridges or blades on a section and/or (c) changing to a different style of connector for joining the two sections.